Objective To investigate the expression of cytoplasmic ribosome biogenesis factor 1(TCOF1)in hepatocellular carcino-ma and its clinical significance by using bioinformatics methods.Methods To analyze the differences in TCOF1 expression in hepatocel-lular carcinoma tissues and normal liver tissues using TCGA is database and to analyze the relationship between TCOF1 expression and clinicopathological parameters and survival prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients.The LinkedOmics online tool was used to ana-lyze the genes associated with TCOF1 co-expression;gene enrichment analysis was used to explore the possible mechanism of the role of TCOF1 in hepatocellular carcinoma.After transfection of hepatocellular carcinoma cells with si-RNA knocking down TCOF1,the effect of TCOF1 inhibition on the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells was analysed by plate cloning assay,EDU assay.Results TCOF1 expression was significantly higher in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues than in paraneoplastic tissues(P＜0.001).The expression of TCOF1 correlated with gender,age,tumor grade,metastasis,histological type and mutation of TP53 in hepatocellular carcinoma pa-tients(P＜0.05).Overall survival(P＜0.001)and disease-free survival(P＜0.001)were worse in patients with hepatocellular car-cinoma with high expression of TCOF1.The proliferative ability of hepatocellular carcinoma cells was significantly down-regulated after inhibiting the expression of TCOF1 compared with the NC group.TCOF1 was closely associated with multiple genes,and further enrich-ment analysis demonstrated that these genes play important roles in a variety of biological processes.Conclusion TCOF1 expression is in-creased in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and leads to poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients,and it is expected to be a po-tential prognostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma and a new target for tumor therapy.

AIM:This study aims to investigate the effects of Feixin decoction(FXD)on pyroptosis of pulmo-nary artery smooth muscle cells(PASMCs)by modulating nuclear factor κB(NF-κB)/nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3(NLRP3)pathway,and to explore how FXD attenuates hypoxic pulmonary hypertension(HPH)in mice.METHODS:A mouse model of HPH was established using the Sugen 5416 combined hypoxia(SuHx)method.Sixty C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into 6 groups:control group,SuHx group,sildenafil group,and low-,medium-and high-dose FXD groups,with 10 mice in each group.Five weeks after treatment,echocardiographic pa-rameters,including pulmonary artery acceleration time(PAT),pulmonary artery ejection time(PET),right ventricular anterior wall thickness at diastole(RVAWd)and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion(TAPSE),were measured.Right ventricular systolic pressure(RVSP)was assessed via right heart catheterization.Right ventricular hypertrophy in-dex(RVHI)was determined by weighing the hearts.Histological examination using HE staining was conducted to observe pathological changes in small pulmonary arteries and the right ventricle,while Masson staining was used to assess fibrosis in the right ventricular wall.Immunofluorescence staining was used to detect co-localized expression of α-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA)with NLRP3,N-terminal fragment of gasdermin D(N-GSDMD)and caspase-1 in the pulmonary arteries.Western blot analysis was conducted to measure the protein levels of NF-κB,p-NF-κB,NLRP3,apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain(ASC),N-GSDMD,interleukin(IL)-1β,IL-18 and cleaved caspase-1 in lung tissues.Transmission electron microscopy was employed to observe the ultrastructure of PASMCs.RE-SULTS:Compared with control group,the mice in SuHx group exhibited elevated RVSP and RVHI(P＜0.01),de-creased right heart function(P＜0.01),increased right ventricular wall fibrosis,and pulmonary vascular remodeling(P＜0.01).There was also increased co-localized expression of α-SMA with NLRP3,N-GSDMD and caspase-1 in small pul-monary arteries(P＜0.01),as well as elevated levels of p-NF-κB,NLRP3,ASC,N-GSDMD,IL-1β,IL-18 and cleaved caspase-1 in lung tissues(P＜0.01),indicating induced pyroptosis of PASMCs.Compared with SuHx group,FXD treat-ment significantly reduced RVSP and RVHI,improved right ventricular function,and attenuated right ventricular wall fi-brosis and pulmonary vascular remodeling(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01).Treatment with FXD also decreased the co-localized ex-pression of α-SMA with NLRP3,N-GSDMD and caspase-1 in small pulmonary arteries(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01),and down-regulated the protein expression of p-NF-κB,NLRP3,ASC,N-GSDMD,IL-1β,IL-18 and cleaved caspase-1 in lung tis-sues(P＜0.05 or P＜0.01),thereby attenuating the pyroptosis of PASMCs.CONCLUSION:FXD attenuates pulmonary vascular remodeling and right ventricular dysfunction in a mouse model of HPH.This effect may be attributed to its inhibi-tion of NF-κB/NLRP3 pathway,which subsequently reduces the pyroptosis of PASMCs.

Objective:To understand the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women and influencing factors in China and provide reference for the improvement of the health status of HIV-infected pregnant women and their newborns.Methods:Based on a mother-child cohort of HIV-infected pregnant women and children (PMTCT-MC-2005) established in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, this study enrolled pregnant women with or without HIV infection as study subjects from January 2017 to June 2023, a total of 1 646 pregnant women (558 HIV-infected and 1 088 HIV-uninfected) were included, and 34 cases with missing data were excluded. The χ2 test was used to analyze the difference in the incidence adverse pregnancy outcome between two groups, and used logistic regression model to identify the influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women. Results:A total of 1 612 pregnant women were included in the study, in whom 541 were infected with HIV and 1 071 were not infected with HIV. The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome was 18.8% (303/1 612), the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome was 33.1% (179/541) in the HIV-infected pregnant women and 11.6% (124/1 071) in the pregnant women without HIV infection. The results of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the influencing factors of adverse pregnancy outcome were age <35 years at delivery (a OR=0.64, 95% CI: 0.43-0.95) compared with the age ≥35 years and the duration of antiviral treatment over 10 years (a OR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.23-0.79) compared with less than one year. Conclusions:The incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome in HIV-infected pregnant women was high in some regions of China during 2017-2023. It is necessary for HIV-infected women to get pregnancy at appropriate time based on antiretroviral treatment effect and strengthen self-care to reduce the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcome.

To explore the protective effect of Angelica sinensis polysaccharide(ASP)on leptospiro-sis induced by pathogenic Leptospira infection,the golden hamster model of leptospirosis was se-lected for the experiment.The Leptospira and Leptospira+ASP groups were intraperitoneally injected with Leptospira interrogans serovar Lai strain 56601(1 × 10 6 per hamster).After infec-tion,the Leptospira+ASP group was injected intraperitoneally with ASP(50 mg/kg)for three consecutive days,while the Leptospira group was injected intraperitoneally with normal saline for three days.The experiment employed methods such as daily observation of the clinical symptoms of golden hamsters,statistics of the survival status of each group of golden hamsters,pathological damage of liver,kidney,and lung,bacterial load in organs,and the expression of inflammatory cy-tokines(IL-1β and TNF-α).The results indicated that ASP could effectively alleviate the clinical symptoms of the infected hamsters,enhance the survival rate,ameliorate the pathological damage of the body,reduce the bacterial load in various organs,and mitigate tissue inflammation.This study demonstrated for the first time that ASP has a protective effect on leptospirosis,providing medication guidance for the clinical treatment of leptospirosis.

Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of circular RNA nuclear receptor interacting protein 1(circNRIP1)expression on exhaustion of CD8+T cells in cervical cancer cells.Methods Real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the expression of circNRIP1 in cervical epithelial cells HCerEpic and cer-vical cancer cells C-33A,Hela,SiHa,and CS121.C-33A cells were divided into Vector group,circNRIP1 group,and circNRIP1+miR-138-5p group,while CS121 cells were divided into sh-NC group,sh-circNRIP1 group,and sh-circNRIP1+miR-138-5p inhibitor.Human peripheral blood CD8+T cells were extracted,and C-33A cells in Vector group and circNRIP1 group were co-incubated with CD8+T cells for 24 hours(CD8+T/Vector group and CD8+T/Vector group).CS121 cells in sh-NC group and sh-circNRIP1 group were co-incu-bated with CD8+T cells for 24 hours(CD8+T/sh NC group and CD8+T/sh-circNRIP1 group).Cytotoxicity experiments were conducted to detect the killing ability of CD8+T cells,ELISA was used to detect the levels of interleukin(IL)-2,interferon(IFN)-γ,and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α in the cell supernatant.Flow cy-tometry was used to detect the expression of programmed death receptor-1(PD-1),T cell Immunoglobulin domain and Mucin domain protein-3(TIM3),and lymphocyte activation gene 3(LAG3)in CD8+T cells.Dual luciferase reporter gene experiments were conducted to verify the targeting relationship between circNRIP1 and miR-138-5p,as well as the targeting relationship between miR-138-5p and PD-L1.Results The expres-sions of circNRIP1 in C-33A,Hela,SiHa,and CS121 cells were significantly higher than those in HCerEpic(P＜0.05).The killing ability of CD8+T cells against C-33A cells in the circNRIP1 group was lower than their killing ability against Vector group cells.The levels of IL-2,IFN-γ,and TNF-α secreted by CD8+T cells in the CD8+T/circNRIP1 group were significantly lower than those in the CD8+T/Vector group(P＜0.05),and the levels of PD-1,LAG-3,and TIM-3 expressed by CD8+T cells in the CD8+T/circNRIP1 group were al-so significantly higher than those in the CD8+T/Vector group(P＜0.05).The killing ability of CD8+T cells against sh-circNRIP1 group CS121 cells was higher than their killing ability against sh-NC group cells(P＜0.05).The levels of IL-2,IFN-γ,and TNF-α secreted by CD8+T cells in the CD8+T/sh-circNRIP1 group were significantly higher than those in the CD8+T/sh-NC group(P＜0.05).The PD-1,LAG-3,and TIM-3 levels of CD8+T cells in the CD8+T/sh-circNRIP1 group were also significantly lower than those in the CD8+T/sh-NC group(P＜0.05).The results of the dual-luciferase reporter gene experiment showed that miR-138-5p was the target gene of circNRIP1,and PD-L1 was the target gene of miR-138-5p.Conclusion circNRIP1 can in-duce the exhaustion of CD8+T cells by upregulating the expression of PD-L1.

Objective To investigate the expression of circular RNA ubiquitin-associated protein 2(circ-UBAP2)and RAS-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1(Rac1)in cervical cancer tissues and their relation-ship with radiotherapy efficacy and prognosis.Methods A total of 96 patients with cervical cancer admitted to the hospital from January 2019 to May 2021 were selected as the research subjects.Detect the expression of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1 in the cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of the patients.The clinical data of the patients were recorded.According to the radiotherapy efficacy,they were divided into patients with effective radiother-apy(n=62)and patients with ineffective radiotherapy(n=34),and the relationship between the expressions of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1 and the radiotherapy efficacy was analyzed.The survival conditions of the patients were followed up for 3 years and they were divided into the survival group(n=81)and the death group(n=15),and the clinical data of the two groups were compared.The relationship between the expressions of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1 and the survival prognosis of patients was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier.The risk factors influ-encing the prognosis of patients were analyzed by Cox regression.Results The circ-UBAP2 expression and the positive rates of Rac1 expression in cancer tissues were both higher than those in adjacent tissues,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).The effective rate of radiotherapy in patients with high ex-pression of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1 in cancer tissues was lower than that in patients with low expression of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).The 3-year overall survival rate and average survival duration of patients with high expression of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1 in cancer tissues were lower than those of patients with low expression of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1,and the difference was statistically significant(P＜0.05).There were statistically significant differences in clinical stage,tumor differentiation degree,expressions of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1,and the proportion of lymph node metastasis between the two groups(P＜0.05).The results of Cox regression analysis showed that clinical stage Ⅱ B-Ⅲ,poorly differen-tiated tumor degree,high expression of circ-UBAP2 and Rac1,and lymph node metastasis were risk factors af-fecting the prognosis of patients(P＜0.05).Conclusion circ-UBAP2 and Rac1 are abnormally highly ex-pressed in cervical cancer tissues and are related to the radiotherapy efficacy and prognosis.

Objective To investigate the expression of cytoplasmic ribosome biogenesis factor 1(TCOF1)in hepatocellular carcino-ma and its clinical significance by using bioinformatics methods.Methods To analyze the differences in TCOF1 expression in hepatocel-lular carcinoma tissues and normal liver tissues using TCGA is database and to analyze the relationship between TCOF1 expression and clinicopathological parameters and survival prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients.The LinkedOmics online tool was used to ana-lyze the genes associated with TCOF1 co-expression;gene enrichment analysis was used to explore the possible mechanism of the role of TCOF1 in hepatocellular carcinoma.After transfection of hepatocellular carcinoma cells with si-RNA knocking down TCOF1,the effect of TCOF1 inhibition on the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells was analysed by plate cloning assay,EDU assay.Results TCOF1 expression was significantly higher in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues than in paraneoplastic tissues(P＜0.001).The expression of TCOF1 correlated with gender,age,tumor grade,metastasis,histological type and mutation of TP53 in hepatocellular carcinoma pa-tients(P＜0.05).Overall survival(P＜0.001)and disease-free survival(P＜0.001)were worse in patients with hepatocellular car-cinoma with high expression of TCOF1.The proliferative ability of hepatocellular carcinoma cells was significantly down-regulated after inhibiting the expression of TCOF1 compared with the NC group.TCOF1 was closely associated with multiple genes,and further enrich-ment analysis demonstrated that these genes play important roles in a variety of biological processes.Conclusion TCOF1 expression is in-creased in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and leads to poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma patients,and it is expected to be a po-tential prognostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma and a new target for tumor therapy.

This study investigated the regulatory potential of salidroside (SAL), a primary active compound in Rhodiola rosea L., on osteoclast differentiation by modulating the hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1a) pathway in osteoblasts. Luciferase reporter assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay were employed to validate whether the receptor activator of nuclear factor-?B ligand (RANKL) is the downstream target gene of HIF-1a in osteoblasts. The study also utilized lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse osteolysis to examine the impact of SAL on osteolysis in vivo. Furthermore, conditioned medium (CM) from SAL-pretreated osteoblasts was used to investigate the paracrine effects on osteoclastogenesis through the HIF-1a pathway. Hypoxic condition-induced overexpression of HIF-1a upregulated RANKL levels by binding to the RANKL promoter and enhancing transcription in osteoblastic cells. In vivo, SAL significantly alleviated bone tissue hypoxia and decreased the expression of HIF-1a by downregulating the expression of RANKL, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4). In the paracrine experiment, conditioned media from SAL-pretreated osteoblasts inhibited differentiation through the HIF-1a/RANKL, VEGF, IL-6, and ANGPTL4 pathways. RANKL emerges as the downstream target gene regulated by HIF-1a in osteoblasts. SAL significantly alleviates bone tissue hypoxia and bone loss in LPS-induced osteolysis through the HIF-1a/RANKL, VEGF, IL-6, and ANGPTL4 pathways. SAL inhibits osteoclast differentiation by regulating osteoblast paracrine secretion.
Animals ; Osteoblasts/cytology* ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit/genetics* ; Glucosides/administration & dosage* ; Cell Differentiation/drug effects* ; Phenols/administration & dosage* ; Mice ; Osteoclasts/metabolism* ; RANK Ligand/genetics* ; Rhodiola/chemistry* ; Osteogenesis/drug effects* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects* ; Interleukin-6/genetics* ; Male ; RAW 264.7 Cells ; Osteolysis/genetics* ; Humans ; Mice, Inbred C57BL

To explore the protective effect of Angelica sinensis polysaccharide(ASP)on leptospiro-sis induced by pathogenic Leptospira infection,the golden hamster model of leptospirosis was se-lected for the experiment.The Leptospira and Leptospira+ASP groups were intraperitoneally injected with Leptospira interrogans serovar Lai strain 56601(1 × 10 6 per hamster).After infec-tion,the Leptospira+ASP group was injected intraperitoneally with ASP(50 mg/kg)for three consecutive days,while the Leptospira group was injected intraperitoneally with normal saline for three days.The experiment employed methods such as daily observation of the clinical symptoms of golden hamsters,statistics of the survival status of each group of golden hamsters,pathological damage of liver,kidney,and lung,bacterial load in organs,and the expression of inflammatory cy-tokines(IL-1β and TNF-α).The results indicated that ASP could effectively alleviate the clinical symptoms of the infected hamsters,enhance the survival rate,ameliorate the pathological damage of the body,reduce the bacterial load in various organs,and mitigate tissue inflammation.This study demonstrated for the first time that ASP has a protective effect on leptospirosis,providing medication guidance for the clinical treatment of leptospirosis.

Obesity is a significant risk factor for cancer and is associated with breast cancer metastasis. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which alterations in systemic metabolism affect tumor microenvironment (TME) and consequently influence tumor metastasis remains inadequately understood. Herein, we found that perturbations in circulating metabolites induced by obesity promote metastasis-like phenotypes in breast cancer. Oleoylcarnitine (OLCarn) concentrations were elevated in the serum of obese mice and humans. Administration of exogenous OLCarn induces metastasis-like characteristics in breast cancer cells. Mechanistically, OLCarn directly interacts with the Arg176 site of adenylate cyclase 10 (ADCY10), leading to the activation of ADCY10 and enhancement of cAMP production. Mutations at Arg176 prevent OLCarn from binding to ADCY10, disrupting the ADCY10-mediated activation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling pathway. This activation promotes transcription factor 4 (TCF4)-dependent kinesin family member C1 (KIFC1) transcription, thereby driving breast cancer metastasis. Conversely, the neutralization of both ADCY10 and KIFC1 through knockdown or pharmacological inhibition abrogates the oncogenic effects mediated by OLCarn. Hence, obesity-induced systemic environmental changes lead to the aberrant accumulation of OLCarn within the TME, making it a potential therapeutic target and biomarker for breast cancer.